As a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011 and failure by the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to reduce the Nation’s debt by $1.2 trillion, automatic across the board cuts to both defense and non-defense discretionary spending, known as sequestration, are set to be enacted on January 2, 2013. These mandatory cuts will have a devastating impact on the research and public health programs supported by federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Energy and others. The White House sequestration report details the alarming effects of the scheduled indiscriminate cuts on science and public health programs.

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) encourages its members to contact their representative and senators about the negative impact the upcoming sequestration would have on science and public health. Go to the ASM’s Legislative Action Center at http://capwiz.com/asmusa/issues/alert/?alertid=61879501 to e-mail your members of Congress and ask them to take action to avoid the dire consequences of sequestration, or arbitrary across the board cuts, before January 1.